|
Re: Fate of would be Finnish Hurricane's
Hi Alex
At the time when these two Hurricanes were lost in transit they were still serialled HU461 and HU462.
HU461 was damaged at Wick airfield and obviously so much so it never was capable of moving any further. Probably the right landing gear was pushed into the wing, possibly after a ground loop. This makes me THINK the damage was of such a heavy nature that repairs were not made and it was either left to rot or used by RAF as spares.
HU462 had its delivery pilot loose his bearings in the bad weather and made an emergency landing near Stavanger. Since this must have been appx one month before the German invasion of Norway, this Hurricane may still have been in Norway at the time and destroyed one way or the other.
As you know the basic idea was to use Vasteras in Sweden as stoppage point on the way to Finland. Incidentally Francis Mason is highly inaccurate in his Hurricane book from 1987 describing the Finnish connection!
Through Air Britain I have 11 of the serials out of 12, all in the N23xxx range. Do you possibly have the 12th? I can't find anyone that fits the bill so to speak
Cheers
Stig
|